A day in the life of a HBHS bandie
by Lyra-the-Silvertongue
Summary: Once again, another chapter! I'm going to try and update more often now...
1. Jazz band!

NOTE: All characters in this story are real, the events are mostly real, and...well I guess that's it.  
  
Around 6:15 in the morning, I walk into the band room of HBHS. That is, on a good day. On a bad day I wait out in the hallway for Mr. Voakes to come and unlock the freakin door. Which on a bad day can be as late as 6:30.  
  
It's another morning of jazz band, just like every other day. I look around the room that I think of as my home, and plop my stuff down on the built in "risers". As I'm always the first one there I usually pull out a book and wait for my best friend Alli to show up. She's the piano player in jazz band and my best friend. About 5 minutes later she walks in the door and tosses a greeting to me. We're both exhausted, like every normal person who is up at 6:20 in the morning. Soon Jackie comes in, a percussionist who is a member of our drumline, which practices at the same time we do. Even though their instructor almost never shows up. Around the same time our bass player Malachai and freshman trumpet Jordan show up. Jackie calls out a greeting, and I either wave or mutter a hello. At exactly 6:30, the time class is supposed to start, everyone walks in all at once. Upon seeing my buddy Chris, I walk over happily and say hi.  
  
Now right now this may sound quite normal to all of you, but it doesn't ever stay that way. No, not at HBHS. We all get out our instruments, grumbling and moaning about it being too freakin early (AN: the person who grumbled most about it being too early was up at 4 in the morning during homecoming week to go over to the houses of those who had been named princesses) and we begin to warm up. We pull out the jazz books (no not the jazz books!!!) and start doing scales till our lips are so dead we won't be able to play any songs. That's when the real playing begins.  
  
Mr. Voakes calls out the name of a song he wants us to play, and we dig through the immense amount of music in our folders to find it. Then just as we're about to play, he realizes that we never tuned. He tunes the bari first, which is always flat no matter who plays it, leading to an unhappy yell from Peter because he now has to shove the mouthpiece on. Apparently this isn't an easy feat. We manage to tune, and then finally we can play the song. Us trumpets are really excited now, until we look at the music and realize it's Bill Bailey (AN: Bill Bailey is a saxophone feature that has 64 measures of rest at the beginning for trumpets). So then Chris, a sign of how brilliant he is, manages to have the entire trumpet section lean on me so they can all fall asleep. So now I'm trying to count measures and support about 4 six-foot guys on me at the same time. If I wasn't such a "nice" person I would have dropped them all on the floor. However I just stand there grumbling and counting measures. Then when it's finally our turn to play we put up our horns and...Mr. Voakes has the entire band stop because the saxophones played wrong.  
  
In the meantime, Chris and the other Jordan are coming up with sick jokes, and figuring out ways to point the jokes at me. I know they mean well, but I just shake my head and mutter about how brainless they are. Being the only girl in the jazz band trumpet section, I've gotten used to the crazy antics that the 4 other male trumpet players manage to come up with. Cause they're all good guys, really they are.  
  
Eventually we make it through the song, that is after about 4 times of stopping and having the saxes play their parts over and over, and Mr. Voakes calls out another. Ooh.this is the song we have choreography in. Yay!!! So then we get to play, and do little flashy moves that Chris came up with. It was brilliance, pure brilliance. This goes on and on until either Mr. Voakes tells us we can leave, or the bell rings. Having the bell ring is bad because then I have to run across campus to get to my Spanish class. But, that's my life, and I don't intend on changing it. 


	2. Concert Band!

Yay I already have a review!! Keep reviewing please; it gives me the drive I need to write more parts.  
  
Around 8:26 I walk back into the band room, having survived my Spanish class. I look around at all the people who are already there, in other words people who don't have their 1st period class across campus. I gaze up at the whiteboard and at the "Fear the wrath of Red Ben" written in big letters with red pen. I sigh and shake my head, muttering about how Chris really should give that a break.  
  
I make my way to the band lockers at the back of the room, walking around all the chaos that is the HBHS concert band getting ready to play. They really need to put more room back there; the percussionists take all the space and don't leave any for people to walk through. I manage to get to the band locker area, only to have to dodge more people, including Brian and Danny. I say my customary hi to Danny, who just nods and barges through with his bass clarinet. I get to the end of the band lockers, and am about to turn into the aisle that my trumpet is located in (AN: at my school the band lockers are all in a big room with a couple of aisles), only to find that the guitar people left their cases all over the floor AGAIN!!!! As I silently fume over the stupidity of the guitar players (no offense guys, but you really need to keep things neater for us bandies) I manage to weave my way through and get my trumpet.  
  
Yes! Now I have my trumpet, and I just need to get back through. This is more of a challenge then getting to my trumpet because all the later people are now straggling in. This means that the band locker area has now become I-5 in rush hour. In other words nobody's really moving that fast. I barge my way through and manage to make it to my seat. A few moments later Chris sits down next to me, and we talk while we get out our instruments. I wave hi to the other Kris and Megan as they walk by and take a glance down the section. I can't help but feel smug as I see all of them below me, although I know I'd rather have Chris one chair higher than me. Mr. Sodano then steps onto the platform (well, he would. But now he's gone. Boo-hoo) and Sarah yells at everyone to shut up. I silently curse her for being such a bitchy person, and get ready to warm up. However it's still not quite, and now Rachel chimes in with a shut up. Apparently she can't let Sarah take all the glory.  
  
We survive through the warm ups, with minimal stops, and Mr. Sodano points at tuba boy to start tuning (AN: While Mr. Sodano was with us, he would never call Brian by his name. He'd always call him the Tuba, or Tuba). Then the low brass joined in, and the bass clarinets. Then us trumpets did, and the out-of-tuneness made me cringe. So Sodano has us fix it, and manages to get the rest of the band in tune. However it's taken about a half hour and we now have 25 minutes left to play, which leaves some of us with very high tempers, cause now we'll probably play till the bell rings. And I have another class across the campus after this, which means I'll have to run again. Maybe I should consider going out for track.  
  
But anyway we now manage to make it to the fun part of band, which is playing music. Yay! Of course Chris takes this time to make a joke, so I quickly smack him upside the head, and he laughs. This brings Justin into play, who quickly starts comparing this music to Evergreen's. That's it, I can't take it anymore. I smack him upside the head as well, much to the delight of Chris and Sheena who couldn't take it anymore either. They leave all the matters of hitting to me, cause they know I'm in charge. So then he settles down, and we begin playing.  
  
While in the middle of a bunch of rests, I look across the room to see Ben watching me. Ugh, he really gives me the creeps. He's always trying to talk to me, and flirt with me, and...just ugh. I think he's actually a stalker or something. Anyway, I look over at the baritones, who once again have lost their place in counting. Since they come in at the same time we do, I hold up my fingers to show them where we are. They nod and go back to counting, only to get lost again seconds later. I sigh and mutter about how they really need to go back to kindergarten if they can't even count to 4. Then Sodano stops us, realizing that he forgot to tune the piccolo. Talk about the most inopportune time, cause now he's going to tune Sarah to me, and...yep. The noise is unbearable. Even Chris is cringing and he's a junior. You'd think he'd be used to it. Now we only have like 5 minutes, so Sodano tells us he'll see us tomorrow, and we all pack up our instruments.  
  
Now once again I have to brave the amount of people who are all trying to get into the band locker room at once. I'm wondering how the heck no one has yet to get stuck in the door. I manage to put my trumpet away, and make my way towards the front of the room to talk to Chris, who reminds me of the pep band game we have that night. I say thanks, and leave towards my math class as the bell rings, thinking of how I really hate to leave.  
  
Well the next of this story will be Pep Band! Whoo-hoo! Go Eagles!! Hey, our sports teams might suck, but that's why the band's there. And at least we don't have to worry about the opposing team having their band there, cause it isn't allowed! Please R/R. 


	3. Pep Band: Basketball Season!

Yay!!! I already have 6 reviews!!! I'm so happy!! Thank you to all who reviewed so far! Now it's time for the next installment.Pep Band!!!!!! This will be done in two parts.pep band: basketball season, and pep band: football season. Since it's currently the middle of basketball season, I'm going to do that first. I will do football season afterwards.  
  
So it's now the evening of the pep band basketball game, and I'm extremely siked. It's the first game of the season we play at, and of course everyone's going to be there. Everyone besides like half the band(AN: During football season it is required that the entire band be there, while during basketball season, the pep band is a group of people who volunteer). So I happily pull on my band sweatshirt, which I already wear almost everyday, and gather up my trumpet and folder of pep band tunes. You know, the basic stuff like Louie Louie, Hey Baby, Great Balls of Fire.stuff like that. I rush out to the car, yelling after my mom to hurry up. Five minutes later we're on our way to the school, and I'm bouncing happily.  
  
We arrive at the school, and my mom drops me off with some money and delivers the traditional "have a good time, sweetie!" speech. I go in the band room, and I see several of my friends already there. Justin's warming up on insanely high scales, just to show all the rest of us that he can. I call to him and say he can stop now, since everybody already knows that he can get really high. "Show off," I mutter to myself. I pull out my trumpet, and begin to warm up on scales LOWER than high Cs above the staff. I look around and absent-mindedly start counting the number of people here. Hmm.one, two, three, four.what comes after four? j/k. Five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Hmm, ten people. That's 3 more then the max last year. (AN: the most people we've ever had sign up for pep band during the basketball season and actually show up is about 10 or 11.although I think we got 15 once.almost all of them trumpets.) Just then my good buddy Chris comes over to me. I say hello excitedly, and he replies with his usual "Yo!" He then comments on how excited I am, and I reply that he shouldn't worry, by third quarter (our break) I'll be tired as heck. He shrugs, and we warm up and talk for a little while. Then Mr. Voakes tells us all to start down to the gym, and on the way I run into Sheena, and her friend Charity. We then come up with this insane scheme to deck out Justin's band locker in orange and black (he's a major ducks fan, and orange and black are beaver colors hee hee). So we quickly dash into the supply room, and grab some orange butcher paper. We then run back to the band room and stash it in Sheena's band locker. That will turn out to be a lunch project.  
  
We all are finally in the gym, and we sigh with content. The first game of the season. The squeaky gym floor, the rickety bleachers.how we all missed those. Okay, so that's going a little bit overboard, but hey, it could happen. We sit down and cheer as our HBHS Eagle Varsity Guy's Basketball team comes out (On nights where it's a girl's game, we don't really cheer since there aren't that many people). Mr. Voakes then tells us to pull out a song. Which song Mr. Voakes? I couldn't hear.Justin was bragging about Evergreen too loud again. Heh heh.just kidding Justin. Upon finding out that the song is soul man (oi vey...the one song we can't play), and after there is a huge collective groan from the fellow pep bandies, Mr. Voakes changes the song to Little Bit of Soul. Thank you Mr. Voakes! We love you.no.not in that way. So then we play.  
  
After we've played about 2 or 3 tunes, the game begins. They ask everyone to rise for the star spangled banner, which is our cue. We all stand up, and begin to play. Oooh, goodie!! I get a small solo in this ^__________^. So I play my beautiful solo (^_______^) and then we play the fight song, also known as Eagle Born *hums "I'm a eagle born, I'm an eagle bred and when I die I'll be an eagle that's dead! Rah rah for Hudson's Bay, rah rah for Hudson's Bay, rah rah for Hudson's Baaaay!"* Okay, so it's a little corny. But what school fight song isn't nowadays? Except maybe for Evergreen's.but let's not go there. So then we sit down, and begin to chat amongst ourselves. You see, this isn't like football season. We only play during time-outs, at the end of each quarter, and during half-time. If we played the fight song every time we scored a basket, we'd all be dead pretty much. So we sit.and we sit.and we sit some more. And then guess what we do? That's right.more sitting. Oooh!! Time out!!! Time to play! What'll it be Voakes? Land of a thousand dances, or the let's go Band thing? Okay.so we don't play. Apparently SOMEBODY wasn't paying attention. That's right.I mean you Voakes.  
  
Finally it's the end of the quarter, and we stand up and play the Hey song. Nothing special.the band doesn't even yell. We have no school spirit at all. The only people who have even less school spirit than us, are the sophomore class. In fact, I've noticed that the sophomore classes are like the least spirited. No offense to you fellow sophomores, I've just noticed that at my school.  
  
After we play, we sit down again and wait some more. Finally it's half- time. Come on Voakes, let's stand up and play now!!! Hold on a second.what the heck is the dance team doing here? Oh.they're supposed to be here. Okay. So we wait for their music to start so they can dance, and then leave so we can play. Except their music isn't on. Okay.it's been 2 minutes and it's still not on. Half-time's wasting away here folks, get the show on the road! Finally, when's there's like 5 minutes left in half-time, they get the music working. By the time they're done, there's only like 2 minutes left. Screw you dance team (no offense to dance team people). So now we can't play. Damn. But it's third quarter break, so we can go get food!! Yay!!!!!  
  
We all rush up to the concession stands and begin buying all sorts of junk food. You know, the stuff you aren't supposed to have while you play your instrument. We then hang around for a little bit, until we realize we have no clue how many minutes there are left on the clock. If we aren't back by two minutes left on the game clock, Mr. Voakes will get really mad (AN: I've only seen Mr. Voakes really mad once, and it wasn't pretty). So we all rush madly back down to the gym, only to see we had an extra 2 minutes. Murphy's law at work. But we all sit back down on the bleachers, finish off our food, and pull out a song for the end of 3rd quarter. Then we play the waiting game again. Finally, when the last buzzer sounds, we find our team has lost. So we get to play the totally un-cool Alma Mater. Then we all walk back to the band room, put our instruments away, and go home. Anxious for the next pep band game.  
  
So.what'd ya think? Kind of long I know, but quite interesting. Tune in next time for Pep Band..football!!! Out of order, but who really cares? 


	4. Pep Band: Football Season!

Wow.I know it's been a really long time since I last updated. I really haven't had anytime at all. But here I am again, back with more a day in the life of. Did you miss me? (  
  
Well.it's about 6 pm on a Monday evening, and here I am heading off to yet another pep band football game. If we're lucky, it will actually be semi- warm even. So my mom drops me off, and I grab my instrument and music and head over to the basketball court by the football field. Wow.nobody's here yet. As if that's anything new. I'm always early to everything. My future bosses are gonna love me. Anyways, I see that Chris (junior drum major for those of you who don't remember) has already arrived. So I walk over and start up a conversation with him. You know, the basic "hi" and "what's up?" followed by his "yo" and the reply "nothing much." That's how it always is. So anyways, I get out my instrument, complaining about how it's always so freaking cold at these games. Just then, more people begin to arrive. Yay. You can see I'm completely excited and overjoyed at this moment. How about one more yay? Yay. Anyways, eventually most of the people show up, and so we begin to warm up. Two minute warning? Not again.*grumble*  
  
Eventually we make it to the field. Now it's just a matter of time till we play the SSB. I look around to see how many people actually came. Wow.half the stands are filled up. With parents. Oh goodie. Finally we get to play the SSB, followed by Eagle Born. Then we sit. And wait till they score.  
  
Still waiting.  
  
Still waiting.  
  
Still..score! Oh wait.that was the other team. False alarm  
  
Still waiting.man.we're apparently not going to do very well this year. The halftime buzzer sounds, and we're down by 7. Apparently the other team sucks nearly as bad as we do. But not as bad. So.now we get to play. Yay. Louie Louie is first.much to the delight of the trumpet section, and the disgust of everyone else. But we play it. Wow.it's like a convent in here. So, third quarter finally arrives. Food!!! We all rush to the concession stands, and come back to find that our team has scored 3 touchdowns since we left. Hmm.I wonder if that means something. Oh well. We sit down to enjoy our dinner, rushing since we only have about 3 minutes to eat. Then 3rd quarter ends, and we play. Then we sit.again.  
  
Finally the game ends, and our team has won, much to the delight of the band people, since it means we can go home and get warm. And so ends this day at football games.  
  
Well.not bad for a long time gone, no? Just review please..it will make things easier. 


	5. Marching Band!

Hiya! I know it's been ages since I last updated...I've been soooooooooo *3 hours later* oooooooo busy. I had some free time this evening, and thought 'Hmm. I haven't updated my band geek story in like...forever. Why don't I do that?' So, here it is. The final chapter in a band geek saga like no other....MARCHING SEASON!!! *weak applause*  
  
Ahh...spring. The flowers begin to bloom, the trees begin to regain their leaves, and the bees buzz merrily in their hives. At HBHS, however, spring means only one thing: Marching Season. The whistle echoes through the student parking lot as the drum major calls off a mark time. TWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET TWEET! TWEET! TWEET! TWEET! TWEET! The drum cadence takes off at a relatively normal pace, and with the forward command (TWEEEEEEEEEEEEET TWEET!), the band begins its now daily march around the parking lot. I, with my trumpet held at attention, keep my eyes forward, head up, and my upper body still. It will be a good day.  
  
We march around the parking lot once, turning through the various rows of student cars. Oops! There goes a car alarm. Stupid things, car alarms. At least as far as marching is concerned. However, it is pretty funny when the drum majors purposely take you down a row in which you know a car alarm will end up going off. That is, pretty funny to us. To security...not so much.  
  
I look out the corner of my eye to see if my line has managed to figure out how to guide. Nope. Still completely off. If only zig zags were popular in parades, then I wouldn't have to complain.  
  
Ooh! Drum major's calling off a song! Which one, which....NOOOOOOOO!!!!! Not Stars and Stripes!!!! GAAAAAH!!!!! Even El Tigre is better than Stars and Stripes, and that's not saying much. Sousa ought to be shot, I'm telling ya. Oh well...thank god we don't have to take the repeats.  
  
So we play Stars and Stripes. My horn snaps down on one, the rest of the section's horns snap down on.....one and a half?!?!? Now wait a second....there's something wrong here. Oh well, I can bug them about it later. Time to call off a carry. Trumpets to a carry, 2, 3, 4! My trumpet is down at my side by four. Gilberto's trumpet is down by four. No one else's is. Great...looks like it's going to be marching drills for the next several weeks. Hope the trumpet section likes eights and eights*, cause they're going to be doing them for a while. From the looks of it, horn angles are going to have to be stressed as well. But hey, that's why the God of Marching Band invented pushups.  
  
We march around the lot a few more times, and then stop in front of the band room. TWEEEEEET TWEET! TWEEEEEET TWEET! TWEET! TWEET! TWEET! We come to a halt. RIGHT HACE! We all turn to face the drum majors and director, who then talk about how good of a job we're doing, yadda yadda yadda. Then we're dismissed. We all walk back to the band room, and begin putting our instruments away. DING DONG DING DONG! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I'M LATE!!!!!!!!  
  
So, how was that? Not the best, I know. And I really need to update the list of band members...but I think I will later. Review, and perhaps I shall soon grace you with another band fic! 


	6. Band Camp!

Well....since several people have told me to continue with this story, I decided I'd go ahead with another chapter. And....one of the ideas in this story came from a close friend of mine, so....I'm giving credit to him on that idea. So....here goes it.

BEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEEPBEsmash, I reach over and slam the off button on my alarm clock, quickly glancing at the time. 6:00Am. Yay....as if I don't already get up this early during the REST of the school year, I do during the summer as well. But anyways, there's a good reason I get up this early during the summer. Two words: Band Camp.

Yes...the all fabled band camp. No, it's not like American Pie in any way, shape, or form, so lay off, k? Anyways, I pull myself out of bed, take a shower, and put on shorts and a t-shirt, plus tennis shoes. Tennis shoes are ESSENTIAL at band camp. That is, unless you want to try and march properly in flip flops. Some people can. I...can't.

After getting my stuff together (you know, trumpet, water bottle, money, car keys, purse with driver's license), I pack it all in my car, and take off for Charity's house. Ok....not necessarily take off....more like, drive kind of slowly down the street towards Charity's house. Ok....so it's exactly like drive kind of slowly so as to avoid getting pulled over towards Charity's house. Any who, I pick up Charity, and we then drive the mile or so to the school.

At the school, I pull into a parking spot and get out. Looking around I inhale deeply.....HACK.....ok, perhaps not SO deeply, and then smile. It feels good to be back at good old HBHS. Considering it's my last year and all, I feel like I kind of have to treat everything as though I'll never see or do it again. Cause....I won't. Duh.

Voakes pulls into the spot next to us, amazing considering the fact it's 7:20am during the SUMMER, and we begin our walk to the band room. Voakes then unlocks the doors, complains how the light is on in the band room (stupid drummers....grumble grumble). And then, after throwing stuff every which a way, we sit. And wait.

And wait.

And wait.

And wait some more. Finally, Ricky shows up. I say hi, he grabs a guitar and tries to be funny by "serenading" me, I tell him to knock it off, and he goes and does the same thing to Gilberto. Gilberto then grabs the guitar, and plays something completely different. Ricky grabs it back. Great....I've been here maybe 10 minutes tops and already there's a battle of the acoustics going on, WHICH doesn't even sound that good.

Finally the door opens, and Dillan walks in. Great that means Matt's here too. Yep, there's Matt. And not far behind them is Evan. Makes sense considering Matt is Evan's flunky, whether or not he chooses to admit it. After them come a huge stream of people, making you wonder whether they don't all just plan this intentionally. Especially since I KNOW Evan and his crew are waaaay too annoying to have stalkers. Unless they do. In which case, I feel sorry for the poor retched souls who have yet to learn any different.

Finally Alli, who did come in not long after me but I just chose not to mention it, and Charity go to the front of the room. Looking around, I sigh. The group is dwindling to nothing. Goodie. Today we have enough people to fill one timpani box. Maybe tomorrow we'll have enough to fill one and a half timpani boxes. Or at least enough to make a block that's bigger than like...three by three. Moving on, however, Alli and Charity tell everyone to go outside. There's a surprise.

After nearly two hours of marching practice, in which nothing really got done because most of the time was spent at ATTENTION, since some people cough Evan and company cough apparently don't understand the meaning of the words "stand still and DON'T MOVE!", we went inside to practice music. Ah...some of the old pieces, and some of the new from last year. Wonderful. It won't make much of a difference either way, the freshman aren't able to read even the very easy pieces all that well. Not their fault, it's more like...bad teaching.

While I'm looking through the music, Justin walks in. I wave hi and Evan, with his huge ego, just stares. Justin, with HIS huge ego, stares back. You can almost see the thoughts running through their heads. Ok, perhaps just A thought a piece, somewhere along the lines of "my ego is bigger than your ego" (Thanks Chris!). The fun part of this is the fact that they're BOTH in my section. Great. What did I do to deserve this? Never mind...I'll just let them have their ego war. Besides, it'll be fun to watch.

So, after settling down and playing through a few tunes, we break for lunch. Krystal then comes up and asks if I'd take her to McDonald's. "No...I'm not driving you to McDonald's, Krystal. I told you earlier, I'm not going anywhere." Thus, poor Alli gets stuck with the task. Ok, so perhaps it's mean to say she's stuck with the task. It's more like Voakes gave her the task. Meanwhile, I'm chatting with several of the freshman clarinets (who are probably some of the coolest freshman I've met, even though I haven't met that many), and somehow the topic of girls and how to....say.....cut off important parts, came up. God bless you Mr. Moore...only you could talk about that in class.

Finally, lunch ends, and we begin to play a game, known as Zip Zap Zorp. Evan, of course, is not playing. Matt is not playing because Evan is not playing. Dillan is not playing because neither of the other two is and because he's more interested in the bass guitar. Sean is not playing because he's too enveloped in drawing the communist symbol on the board. Justin is not playing because Evan isn't playing, not because he's a follower but because he's out to prove something. What, I don't know. But have fun anyway. So we play, and I get knocked out a little towards the end, partially because I wasn't paying attention to who said what, and partially because it wasn't really a fun game. Oh well...I at least participated, right?

After the game we go back outside for more marching, and after a little while we have a drill down. Basically, for those of you who don't know, a drill down is where the drum majors call off a series of commands and we, the marching platoon, have to follow them. Haces are very popular, especially in rapid succession, and combined with tempo changes and horns up commands. Usually I kick butt at these, but today I just don't care. Thus, I falter a little on one of the rapid succession hace commands, and willingly step out. Not because I suck (because I will tell you that with the exception of a couple of people, I will kick anyone's butt at drill downs), but because I don't want to show off. It's just not right. Ok ok....so that's MY ego talking, but oh well. Eventually it gets down to just freshman, which doesn't exactly seem fitting since I saw ALL of them do something wrong at some point. They just didn't get caught. Grr. Jessica D., James Devena's sister, wins it. Then, we go back in the band room and put away chairs and stands. Ok...so Charity, Alli and I put away chairs and stands. And a few other people as well, pardon me. Then, Charity and I walk back to my car, and drive back towards her house. I drop her off, and with a "see you tomorrow", start towards home. Hmm...I wonder what Evan and Justin are doing? (_Thought sequence)_

Evan: stares at Justin

Justin: stares at Evan

Evan: My horn angle's just fine the way it is.

Justin: No, it's got to be at 10 degrees above parallel.

Evan: No it doesn't.

Justin: Yes it does.

Evan: No.

Justin: Yes.

Evan: stares at Justin

Justin: doesn't stare back

Evan: Ha! My ego's bigger than your ego.

Justin: No it's not, cause I came from Evergreen.

Evan: Well...I don't care, mine's still bigger cause I have flunkies.

Justin: Well...I can play trumpet better than you.

Evan: Nope.

Justin: Yep.

conversation continues like this for weeks

(_end thought sequence)_

Ok...I hope that it isn't that extreme yet....

Well....what do you think? I know it's kind of awkward in a way, but that's pretty much how things are going. Please review!!!


	7. Jazz Band, Take Two!

Well….it's been a really long time, but I figure I'd add another chapter onto my little story, especially since I think it's been going great! So…here is jazz band, take two!

yawn I stretch and get out of bed, beating my alarm clock by a whole two minutes. Yay, now that's another two minutes I can use to post on the message boards! Anyways, I get dressed, brush my hair, etc., and then climb up the basement stairs to the kitchen to scrounge for some food. The clock on the stove says 5:15am, but that's a lie. It's really 5:10am.

Since I know you're wondering what the heck I'm doing up this early, it is because I belong to that wonderful group of fellow insomniacs known as the HBHS jazz band. We willingly sacrifice all our sleep and last-minute homework time to show up at school at least a half hour before the majority of the school. I love it, but I don't know about the rest of them. Anyways, being unsuccessful in my quest for breakfast, I figure I'll be fine without it (since I really don't eat breakfast all that often anyways). Making my way towards the bathroom to brush my teeth, I encounter several barking dogs and some random stuff, but I manage to escape unscathed. Finishing up, I look at my watch and see that it is a quarter to six. Time to leave!

Pulling into the parking lot at HBHS, I see that, like always, I am the first one here. As proof of that, I know the graveyard janitor by name. It's George. Anyways, I get out of my car and make my way around the building to the arts wing. Once arriving, I set my stuff down and begin the waiting game.

Gilberto is the first to come in. Not surprising, however, because like me, he has no life outside of band. Well…at least not one that he cares to share with everyone else. Upon further questioning, I find that he has, in fact, been here since 5:30 this morning. :raises eyebrow: Ok, I have now determined that if he does in fact have a life outside of band, it will never be readily apparent to anyone. Not long after, Alli shows up, and begins talking about this audio file in which some guy craps out an entire piece of pie. As I try to suppress my gag reflex, Voakes shows up and unlocks the door to the band room, allowing us early arrivers entrance into a world very few see….the interior of the band room.

Aaahhh. The band room. My home away from home. Literally….if I spent any more time there, they'd have to charge me rent. Anyways, plopping my organizer on the top riser step, I make my way to my instrument and music. Since there is nobody else, I don't have to worry about climbing over various cases, people, or stuffed animals in my quest to retrieve my trumpet. It's the little things like that which make a band geek's life wonderful. Placing my case on the top riser next to my organizer, I grab a music stand. Ooh….it wobbles. :turns green: Perhaps it wobbles a little too much. I retrieve another one, and upon passing the wobblyness test, I place my jazz band folder on it, hoping that it won't collapse under the weight. Seriously, the folder's almost bigger than my Arban's book (AN: The Arban's Book, nicknamed the trumpet bible, is about a thousand pages or so, probably more. I'd have to look to make sure)

Warming up with a few techniques learned from my weekend at Eastern, Alli and I then engage a rather intelligent conversation while waiting for the rest of the people to show up. Riiiight. The day we engage in an intelligent conversation will be the day that the apocalypse is going to happen. And since that was technically supposed to happen about a month ago at 1:00pm(AN: I was sick for two days about a month ago, and those people who labeled me as an immortal band god swore up and down that we were all going to die. Ha ha.), I've determined that we've got a while.

6:30 approaches, and as usual, the large wave of people comes. There's the Cragans, on time today. Tony comes in next, followed by Charity. I shout a hello, and receive a friendly wave in return. Then comes the big group of people. Sheena, Celena, Steven (he's here today?), Gina, Eric, Jordan, Andrew, Rusty, and gasp Chad? He's NEVER here. Wonder how much Voakes had to pay him……cough cough I mean, I wonder what changed his mind? Anyways, the clock now reads 6:35, and Voakes starts with his customary warm up routine.

By about 6:45, we've finished warm-ups, and, as I reminisce over the good ole' days when people actually cared about jazz band, Voakes tells us to pull out Chicago. For those of you who have never seen the movie Chicago, you have been deprived of one of the best musicals I've ever seen. Come talk to me, I'll let you borrow it. Anyways, Voakes tells me to start at the beginning (a really cool trumpet solo w/ plunger), making some crack about whether or not I've joined the ranks of the fluttertonguers. (AN: for those of you who DON'T play brass, or just don't play an instrument at all, fluttertonguing is a technique in which the player "flutters" their tongue in their instrument, producing a sound similar to a growl, but not quite). Tossing back a "no", I proceed with the solo, and we then continue on through the rest of the piece. Before long, Voakes stops us, and tells the saxophones to play such and such measure. I and the fellow trumpets (Jordan, Steven and Gilberto) sit on the riser. This is where things get interesting.

Voakes finishes, and then tells everybody to play. The trumpets stand up. We get about 4 measures into the piece, and he tells the trombones to play such and such measure. The trumpets sit down. He finishes with them, and tells everybody to play. The trumpets stand up. We get another 20 measures or so into the piece, before we stop again so that he can work with the saxophones on a melody they've played 60 million times before. The trumpets sit down.

Everybody plays, the trumpets stand up.

We stop, the trumpets sit down.

Stand up.

Sit down.

Stand up.

Sit down.

Stand up, and we finally make it through the entire piece. Making some comment about how we've now received an entire daily workout just by playing one song, we pull out the next song Voakes calls out. Well Put. Ah….good old Well Put. I remember playing this my first year in jazz band. It's a great song…..with a lot of saxophone melody. Now, I know that there are a couple of saxophones who have no problem playing the melody stuff in this song…..they're just not the lead alto. And of course, you can hear the lead alto over everything. So, as the trumpets spend the next 20 minutes playing the Oompa Loompa game again, the saxophones work out their differences. Breathing a sigh of relief, we move on. Next is Funky Cha-Cha. OMG….I love this song! It's soo…..cha-cha like (Hmm…I wonder why). What makes it even better is the fact that everybody can play it without any problems! HOORAY:D

At the end of Funky Cha-Cha, we see that it is 7:20. Closing up his folder, Voakes tells us we can leave, and I hurry to put my instrument away before the rush of people begins, since not only are there jazz band people trying to leave, there are guitar people trying to get in. And there are 50 people in the guitar class. As I manage to squeeze my way through the miniscule opening left, the bell rings, and I begin my quest towards the computer room, as I now have the next 55 minutes free. Much of that will be spent on trying to figure out who's going to replace the trumpet section next year, since they're all leaving (either quitting or graduating). Hmm…I wonder if there are any professionals out there who wouldn't mind impersonating a high school student….

Well…there you have it! Hope you enjoyed it. I'm hoping to get the next chapter out soon. More pep band stuff…and before too much longer, I'm going to give you a whole new category, Musical practice! Well…toodleloo!


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